A simple but effective method of sink and draw or wobbling saves the day, watch the session unfold below:
Thank yuou very much for watching,
till next time
tight lines
Danny
Showing posts with label canal fishing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label canal fishing. Show all posts
Tuesday, 24 October 2017
Dead Bait Fishing for pike: The Rough With The Smooth
After an amazing start to the season where the float would not keep still i hit session number 3 and with it came the first lost fish and dropped runs. Rain banging down i was sat fish less and reminiscing on the past sessions captures.
A simple but effective method of sink and draw or wobbling saves the day, watch the session unfold below:
A simple but effective method of sink and draw or wobbling saves the day, watch the session unfold below:
Tuesday, 17 October 2017
Deadbait fishing for Pike - Double runs and a Double!!
So the second session of the season and i headed out with my trusty float ledger rig i showed in the last video. In this one i cover my simple float ledger rig in more detail and its versatility. How to construct this simple pike rig and how to fish it effectively for pike.
A manic session with double runs and and plenty of run!!
Till next time,
A manic session with double runs and and plenty of run!!
Till next time,
Tight lines
Danny
Friday, 19 August 2016
23lb of River Roach On Bolo & Canal Tinca......
A war welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet. A few days booked off work last weekend and to start it off was a session on the river. We knew little about whether the fish would be shoaled up on the spots but after a few hard weeks we knew it was time to go all out and see what was on offer and what a session awaited us.
The second part of the blog is a session i did recently on the canal where i decided to target an area with the idea of maximising the fish i could catch. More on my thought processes and reasons in the update but lets just say one fish had me walking up and down the bank. We start this update off thought with a bit of an introduction chat on the upcoming pike season that is well and truly in my thoughts right now.
On with the update..
Piking Just round the Corner...
So chilling out this week i get a message of my piking buddy Garry asking if i wanted in on our usual annual bait order and i have to say the text had me checking the calendar and low and behold we are just over a month away from the start of the pike season. My god this has sneaked up on my and to be honest it just does not feel right just now to be even thinking about pike, least not on days where the mercury is creeping up to 90 degrees.
The order does need doing though and after two years pike fishing i think i am starting to develop confidence in certain baits as this years order, without the value back, does only really contain around 3-5 species of dead baits. I will of course go more into the bait order when it arrives in a future blog but i thought i would just touch base with it here to let the blog know that piking is well and truly starting to weigh heavy in my thoughts.
Of course last years pike season was well documented in this week by week round up here: http://satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/p/201516-pike-seaon.html
One thing is for sure in this pike season and that is the fact there will be new adventures on new waters to me and with some big pike under my belt and nothing to really aim for the pressure is off and its time to build on past seasons and take this to brand new areas to see if i can tempt the odd big girl. As mentioned previous more on my hopes and aspirations closer to the start of the season.
23lb River Roach On The Bolo....
The passed few weeks have been really tough for me and my uncle on the rivers with low clear conditions on one river seeing the bites die as soon as the sun come up and the other river we fished being a bite a chuck but swims begin ravaged by pike and killing any sport. In short i had a choice to make i could either be selfish and go back the smaller river and try all out for barbel knowing i would be in for a shout but my uncle would be enduring a pike ridden time in a swim or we could go all out on a whim and try a completely different river all together and see if the fish had arrived in their summer and autumn haunts, we decided on the later.
The above paragraph illustrates just how fishing together you have to be a team and think of each others fishing. The river was a good walk from the parking spot and involved the odd hilly climb and a short section of dense brambles, it was clear no one was fishing these spots recently, just our cup of tea. We finally arrived in the swims and we decided to both fish the same swim, i was on the bolo and my uncle was going to try and fish the pole and stick float. The ultimate aim of the session was to get the odd bite and be close enough have a natter.
I shocks me when people email me saying they live near a river but are unsure how to fish it as it looks complicated when the truth is river fishing is so basic and simple in its design and the true learning of the art form comes form repetition and putting the time in to learn how to read a river and run a float through. A quick look at my side tray shows how simple the gear is i use, 1.7lb bayer perlon line for hook lengths, size 16 hooks 3 gram bolo float and some everyday weights. This in its entirety covers everything that goes on the line from top to bottom.
To those interested in fishing a bolo and wondering how you set it up i plum the depth with no weights at all on the line to get a true depth and then fishing a hook length around a foot long i place 3 number 8 droppers evenly spaced on the hook length. Above all these i put most of the weight in a bulk to cock the float so only the red of the float shows, doing this you leave enough weight to place a small number 8 weight beneath your float. This weight servers two purposes in of course stopping the float sliding on the line and i find it begins the settle the float as soon as it hits the water meaning its easier to pick up those bites on the drop.
Catching a lot on the river does not have to be expensive at all, you can make it expensive when you go down the ground bait line, but in general i take 2 pints of maggot and a pint of hemp for most of my river fishing, a great days fishing can be had on around 6 quids worth of bait it really can.
The swim was around 8 feet deep and was of a similar depth along its length till it felt like it shallowed up at its tail. Plumbing up a bit further out it did drop away again by a couple of inches but my initial thought was to see what i could catch on the deck and then see if the fish further out would have it just off bottom. It is sort of killing two birds with one stone way of working out how they are feeding better.
The first few trots down went by without a tap but then slowly the odd bite started to develop with a small billy perch and the odd small roach. A severe upstream wind was meaning the float was holding back lovely in the swim and on the day i think this certainly helped the swim.
Bites then started to come thick and fast as it was clear a big shoal of roach had moved into the swim. It seemed bites from smaller roach where hard to hit and i missed loads of bites on the day but when the float buried with a proper roach there was no missing the bite and on some occasions i cast in, fed with the catapult, saw the float go under and still had time to grab the rod and strike.
After the first hour the swim was alive with roach as time and time again the bolo would slide away. I knew with so much prey about a pike would soon be attracted and no sooner had i mentioned this fact to my uncle than a flash of green appeared under the surface as a small jack nailed a nice roach. I could see the jack pike and it was no bigger than the roach.
On the day it shocked me how the swim recovered after the pike attacks, this pike would nail the odd fish but being too big to swallow it would let go and in would come a roach with a small half moon crescent bite on it. He was on me all day but thankfully it didn't seem to bother the swim.
As the session wore on a pattern began to emerge and i started to notice that the bigger roach where holding just that bite further out than i was feeding my hemp. A few of the better ones below.
You would nail a couple on the bounce and then a move back into the nearside line would see you pickling up an average stamp roach of a few ounces. As the session wore on i could feel i was putting a decent net of roach together and chatting to my uncle he was sure i had over 15lb in the net as the average size of the fish was steady.
I actually ran out of hemp on the session but kindly my uncle provided me with a nice top up for the last hour. I did think about changing over to corn but in my head i was thinking "why change anything? i am catching steady and a nice stamp" I guess a bigger bait like corn might have picked out these better roach time and time again but given i was a bite a chuck i felt i needed not to change anything in my approach.
As with all memorable river sessions it all went by too fast and before i knew it the sun had come over and it was time to pack in. It is always a killer packing in when the fish are still having it and i am sure had i fished on into the evening the fish would have come on even more and we would possibly have been looking at a very special net indeed.
The final net went 23lb 8oz! and was mainly made up of roach with the odd chublet, hybrid and 1 dace!
All in all a very special session on the river and although as i write this now terrible weather is battering at the window i can not wait to get out tomorrow morning back on the river and this time armed with more bait i pray i find the fish hungry, although in these conditions a fish might be a result.
Bridgewater Canal Fishing Session - Battles with a Tinca.....
A warm day previous saw me arriving on the canal to be met by one of the most beautiful red skies i have ever seen. When people ask what will you miss most about fishing if you packed in tomorrow i would certainly say the special moments you experience like this when you know the world around you is asleep and there in that moment you are completely worry free and in ore of mother natures beauty.
First things first and it was as always mixing up the ground bait so by the time i had set up it was ready to be riddled. Swim choice on the day was a bit factor for me, in the stretch there is no shortage of cover and fishy looking spots but on this session i was a man with a plan.
I walked the length till i found what i was looking for and i found it just after a boating dock. A canal boat on the far side and the fact the canal narrowed slightly here meant i could fish a line on only a few sections of pole and be right by the boat and i could also fish another line on the 2m whip under feet. My hopes for the session where to really be aggressive and attack the swim to see how much i could catch before the boats started up.
Over the far bank line went 3 big balls of ground bait laced with hemp and red maggot and i left this to settle while i fished the whip close in. Feeding small balls of slop i was soon picking up roach a chuck under my feet and i would say in that first hour i picked up a steady weight of fish with the odd better roach.
The swim under my feet began to slow down, this is normal for the canal it seems, so it was time to try over my far bank line. The float slid away straight away with a nice skimmer so i straight away went in with another big ball of ground bait. My hope was for the better bronze bream to settle in the swim and the extra feed to keep them there.
Fishing maggot i knew i would be picking up anything that swims and it was literally a bite a chuck on the far bank line as the float slid away each time it settled. For a canal it was fantastic fishing and thoroughly enjoyed the early exchanges. The swim did die momentarily and with fish up in the net i am sure i was visited by a toothy visitor but never actually saw any signs.
The far bank line then again come alive and it felt like the swim had breathed a huge sigh of relief. Steady bites continued and you can imagine my surprise when i lifted into a fish and it all went sold and then the elastic went zooming down the canal, a carp i was sure. The fish went right into the thick week and all went solid, shipping back to my top kit i felt sure i was about to be ducking out of the way of a float and hook coming back at me but then something gave and the fish came free, it was still on!
Up and down the canal i walked trying to tire the fish out on a light elastic till eventually i managed to slip my net under a beautiful tench. A perfect sight on a perfect morning.
The tench in the net i settled back into catching the silvers and it was good fishing till the boats revved up around 9am, one at first and you can cope with them when they come every 10 to 15 minutes one at a time but when they where coming along in threes and fours every five minutes i knew time was called.
A cracking 16lb canal net was my reward.
I think my only regret on this session was not taking corn as i think a bigger bait might have nailed more bream and maybe more tench but still 16lb in only a few hours on the cut i left a happy angler.
tight lines if you are out this weekend and stay safe,
till next time
Danny
The second part of the blog is a session i did recently on the canal where i decided to target an area with the idea of maximising the fish i could catch. More on my thought processes and reasons in the update but lets just say one fish had me walking up and down the bank. We start this update off thought with a bit of an introduction chat on the upcoming pike season that is well and truly in my thoughts right now.
On with the update..
Piking Just round the Corner...
So chilling out this week i get a message of my piking buddy Garry asking if i wanted in on our usual annual bait order and i have to say the text had me checking the calendar and low and behold we are just over a month away from the start of the pike season. My god this has sneaked up on my and to be honest it just does not feel right just now to be even thinking about pike, least not on days where the mercury is creeping up to 90 degrees.
The order does need doing though and after two years pike fishing i think i am starting to develop confidence in certain baits as this years order, without the value back, does only really contain around 3-5 species of dead baits. I will of course go more into the bait order when it arrives in a future blog but i thought i would just touch base with it here to let the blog know that piking is well and truly starting to weigh heavy in my thoughts.
Of course last years pike season was well documented in this week by week round up here: http://satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/p/201516-pike-seaon.html
One thing is for sure in this pike season and that is the fact there will be new adventures on new waters to me and with some big pike under my belt and nothing to really aim for the pressure is off and its time to build on past seasons and take this to brand new areas to see if i can tempt the odd big girl. As mentioned previous more on my hopes and aspirations closer to the start of the season.
23lb River Roach On The Bolo....
The passed few weeks have been really tough for me and my uncle on the rivers with low clear conditions on one river seeing the bites die as soon as the sun come up and the other river we fished being a bite a chuck but swims begin ravaged by pike and killing any sport. In short i had a choice to make i could either be selfish and go back the smaller river and try all out for barbel knowing i would be in for a shout but my uncle would be enduring a pike ridden time in a swim or we could go all out on a whim and try a completely different river all together and see if the fish had arrived in their summer and autumn haunts, we decided on the later.
The above paragraph illustrates just how fishing together you have to be a team and think of each others fishing. The river was a good walk from the parking spot and involved the odd hilly climb and a short section of dense brambles, it was clear no one was fishing these spots recently, just our cup of tea. We finally arrived in the swims and we decided to both fish the same swim, i was on the bolo and my uncle was going to try and fish the pole and stick float. The ultimate aim of the session was to get the odd bite and be close enough have a natter.
I shocks me when people email me saying they live near a river but are unsure how to fish it as it looks complicated when the truth is river fishing is so basic and simple in its design and the true learning of the art form comes form repetition and putting the time in to learn how to read a river and run a float through. A quick look at my side tray shows how simple the gear is i use, 1.7lb bayer perlon line for hook lengths, size 16 hooks 3 gram bolo float and some everyday weights. This in its entirety covers everything that goes on the line from top to bottom.
To those interested in fishing a bolo and wondering how you set it up i plum the depth with no weights at all on the line to get a true depth and then fishing a hook length around a foot long i place 3 number 8 droppers evenly spaced on the hook length. Above all these i put most of the weight in a bulk to cock the float so only the red of the float shows, doing this you leave enough weight to place a small number 8 weight beneath your float. This weight servers two purposes in of course stopping the float sliding on the line and i find it begins the settle the float as soon as it hits the water meaning its easier to pick up those bites on the drop.
Catching a lot on the river does not have to be expensive at all, you can make it expensive when you go down the ground bait line, but in general i take 2 pints of maggot and a pint of hemp for most of my river fishing, a great days fishing can be had on around 6 quids worth of bait it really can.
The swim was around 8 feet deep and was of a similar depth along its length till it felt like it shallowed up at its tail. Plumbing up a bit further out it did drop away again by a couple of inches but my initial thought was to see what i could catch on the deck and then see if the fish further out would have it just off bottom. It is sort of killing two birds with one stone way of working out how they are feeding better.
The first few trots down went by without a tap but then slowly the odd bite started to develop with a small billy perch and the odd small roach. A severe upstream wind was meaning the float was holding back lovely in the swim and on the day i think this certainly helped the swim.
Bites then started to come thick and fast as it was clear a big shoal of roach had moved into the swim. It seemed bites from smaller roach where hard to hit and i missed loads of bites on the day but when the float buried with a proper roach there was no missing the bite and on some occasions i cast in, fed with the catapult, saw the float go under and still had time to grab the rod and strike.
After the first hour the swim was alive with roach as time and time again the bolo would slide away. I knew with so much prey about a pike would soon be attracted and no sooner had i mentioned this fact to my uncle than a flash of green appeared under the surface as a small jack nailed a nice roach. I could see the jack pike and it was no bigger than the roach.
On the day it shocked me how the swim recovered after the pike attacks, this pike would nail the odd fish but being too big to swallow it would let go and in would come a roach with a small half moon crescent bite on it. He was on me all day but thankfully it didn't seem to bother the swim.
As the session wore on a pattern began to emerge and i started to notice that the bigger roach where holding just that bite further out than i was feeding my hemp. A few of the better ones below.
You would nail a couple on the bounce and then a move back into the nearside line would see you pickling up an average stamp roach of a few ounces. As the session wore on i could feel i was putting a decent net of roach together and chatting to my uncle he was sure i had over 15lb in the net as the average size of the fish was steady.
I actually ran out of hemp on the session but kindly my uncle provided me with a nice top up for the last hour. I did think about changing over to corn but in my head i was thinking "why change anything? i am catching steady and a nice stamp" I guess a bigger bait like corn might have picked out these better roach time and time again but given i was a bite a chuck i felt i needed not to change anything in my approach.
As with all memorable river sessions it all went by too fast and before i knew it the sun had come over and it was time to pack in. It is always a killer packing in when the fish are still having it and i am sure had i fished on into the evening the fish would have come on even more and we would possibly have been looking at a very special net indeed.
The final net went 23lb 8oz! and was mainly made up of roach with the odd chublet, hybrid and 1 dace!
All in all a very special session on the river and although as i write this now terrible weather is battering at the window i can not wait to get out tomorrow morning back on the river and this time armed with more bait i pray i find the fish hungry, although in these conditions a fish might be a result.
Bridgewater Canal Fishing Session - Battles with a Tinca.....
A warm day previous saw me arriving on the canal to be met by one of the most beautiful red skies i have ever seen. When people ask what will you miss most about fishing if you packed in tomorrow i would certainly say the special moments you experience like this when you know the world around you is asleep and there in that moment you are completely worry free and in ore of mother natures beauty.
First things first and it was as always mixing up the ground bait so by the time i had set up it was ready to be riddled. Swim choice on the day was a bit factor for me, in the stretch there is no shortage of cover and fishy looking spots but on this session i was a man with a plan.
I walked the length till i found what i was looking for and i found it just after a boating dock. A canal boat on the far side and the fact the canal narrowed slightly here meant i could fish a line on only a few sections of pole and be right by the boat and i could also fish another line on the 2m whip under feet. My hopes for the session where to really be aggressive and attack the swim to see how much i could catch before the boats started up.
Over the far bank line went 3 big balls of ground bait laced with hemp and red maggot and i left this to settle while i fished the whip close in. Feeding small balls of slop i was soon picking up roach a chuck under my feet and i would say in that first hour i picked up a steady weight of fish with the odd better roach.
The swim under my feet began to slow down, this is normal for the canal it seems, so it was time to try over my far bank line. The float slid away straight away with a nice skimmer so i straight away went in with another big ball of ground bait. My hope was for the better bronze bream to settle in the swim and the extra feed to keep them there.
Fishing maggot i knew i would be picking up anything that swims and it was literally a bite a chuck on the far bank line as the float slid away each time it settled. For a canal it was fantastic fishing and thoroughly enjoyed the early exchanges. The swim did die momentarily and with fish up in the net i am sure i was visited by a toothy visitor but never actually saw any signs.
The far bank line then again come alive and it felt like the swim had breathed a huge sigh of relief. Steady bites continued and you can imagine my surprise when i lifted into a fish and it all went sold and then the elastic went zooming down the canal, a carp i was sure. The fish went right into the thick week and all went solid, shipping back to my top kit i felt sure i was about to be ducking out of the way of a float and hook coming back at me but then something gave and the fish came free, it was still on!
Up and down the canal i walked trying to tire the fish out on a light elastic till eventually i managed to slip my net under a beautiful tench. A perfect sight on a perfect morning.
The tench in the net i settled back into catching the silvers and it was good fishing till the boats revved up around 9am, one at first and you can cope with them when they come every 10 to 15 minutes one at a time but when they where coming along in threes and fours every five minutes i knew time was called.
A cracking 16lb canal net was my reward.
I think my only regret on this session was not taking corn as i think a bigger bait might have nailed more bream and maybe more tench but still 16lb in only a few hours on the cut i left a happy angler.
tight lines if you are out this weekend and stay safe,
till next time
Danny
Thursday, 4 August 2016
First Barbel Trip, Canal Roach and The Hiden Jewel of the Lake!!
A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet. The weather has finally turned and we have gone from flooded banks with minimal options to a take your pick type situation with all rivers in fine fettle. Again we are still in a back log situation with the blog, not helped by me getting out three times this weekend. Last weeks blog format was well received with it being all about the fishing and with very little to talk about in the angling world for an introduction i reckon the same approach is worth another go.
This weeks blog update see's me hitting the bank for my first ever session just aimed at catching barbel, we then jump into a pole session on the canal in a swim with plenty of features and we finish it off with a bumper session for carp where believe it or not i catch my 50th carp of the season (still shake my head as i type that as i can not believe i have actually caught some carp on this blog lol) in a session where it certainly was quality rather than quantity.
Sit back, grab a brew and a chocky biscuit, its what i do when i read blogs and lets get right into this update...
First Barbel Session.....
At the start of the week i had decided to get my act together with the barbel fishing and as with all aspects of fishing preparation is the key. I knew evenings would be the best time for a bite but i also knew that such a session was never going to happen after work as it stood right now as i had no hemp seed prepared and no meat hook baits prepared either.
There was always the option to go to the tackle shop and just buy loads of tins of hemp seed and pre prepared luncheon meat but come on have you seen the price of these products?? Yes they are convenient and i wont argue in the fact the missus wont kill you for using her best pan to cook your hemp or for turning the house air green with the smell of boiling hemp, but, when you do the sums you realise just how much money money is added to the price of the raw product of hemp seed when you buy it in this form. Maybe I'm just tight but doing the sums a 20kg bag saves you at least the price of a new fishing rod and on the odd occasion i have bought a tin of hemp i found these tins don't even contain a pint of hemp! Well in a blog with no introduction we snook a rant in somewhere ha-ha.
So with the hemp cooked in 2 pint bags and the luncheon meat happily marinating in my spicy mix it was a simple case of getting the bait out of the freezer before work so i could hit the bank right away that evening. A quick check on the EA levels at 4pm showed the river dropping and about foot max above summer levels, this was at 2pm on my break. I rushed home at 4pm grabbed the gear and then fought my way through rush hour traffic finally arriving on the river banks at around 5.15pm.
Opening the farmers gate i could see the river, odd i thought as you can not normally see her till a little more along the field. Getting closer i could see she was well up and very very coloured. I walked the banks to find most of the swims unfishable due to the bottom of the peg being submerged. The only bit of the stretch that was fishable was the peg i fished the opening week on the stick float where the risen bank i was stood on had created a slack on the inside. Down the middle it was bombing through with all types of stuff coming down.
I fed the inside heavy with hemp seed trying my best to judge the flow so the hemp was staying in the swim and nog getting washed away. I set my stall and in went a big pieces of smelly meat. Sat back well up the bank i was fishing my first ever barbel session on a rising river and although the text books say this is the best conditions, for me, it was a baptism of fire and i was using all my watercraft to try and read a river rising fast, i felt i was in the right spot. If i was going to get one it would be here.
Bot long after casting in i began to get a few taps on the rod tip, then a few more and the excitement levers rose, i was at least in a spot where fish where holding. The taps continued until the tip tap round and remained round, i stuck and there was a fish on!! in the flow it felt ok but soon up came a slimy slippery eel! Not the species i was after but the blank was saved and i felt i was in the right area.
The next few hours i really questioned my sanity as zero taps on the rod and the sight of whole trees coming down the river really did have me thinking of packing in and calling it a wasted trip. A stick in the water was my marker and the river had fully submerged this as was the rise. 9pm and the flow on the river seemed to change and settle and the streams of rubbish had stopped coming down. Being a stick float angler i rarely see the river in this state so i imagine this was when the river hit its peak and leveled off.
Thew light levels began to go and calm was all around me, it felt right it felt bite time and as soon as i thought that the tip wolloped round, a bite like nothing else i had ever seen, grabbing the rod i was bent into a fish that felt massive in the flow yet it went from one side to the next effortlessly before coming into the middle of the river and again making hard runs, i felt sure it was a barbel. It certainly was not a chub,too strong. Holding in the flow and the fight i felt getting into the middle stages the line come flying back at me as the hook pulled!! Writing this now the feeling i felt then comes flooding back, i was gutted, i sat there and in short was amazed how the fish had gone on such hard runs but when seemingly under control in the middle of the river the hook pulled. Fished on into dark but nothing came but the extra time saw me reflecting on the situation.
"my first ever barbel trip on a new river in flooded conditions and i had read the river, fed a swim and got a bite from a barbel. Yes i was gutted but there where more positives than negatives to take form this session."
Early Morning Canal Session - Bridgewater Canal
A stifling day midweek in work and i decided to escape the beige brick wall i face in work and escape for an opportunistic hour lunch break. A short drive and i was soon heading down a narrow road leading to a humpback bridge. A tight turn and i was literally along side the canal looking at a swim that was to die for reeds lined the far bank and all along the length there was sunken trees and surface lillys. It screamed fish but alas my destiny that day lay back at my desk dreaming of the swim i had just been eating my sandwiches in.
Saturday morning arrived and in the dark i loaded the car and made my way to the swim. I loaded in my MAP TKS 101 2G pole with two top kits and bait for the day would be ground bait and red maggot. As regular readers will know i follow a set routine with my canal sessions and the first thing to be done was mixing up the ground bait, this is my opinion, when prepared in the right way, is the key to success on the canal.
I fed the far line just off the cover heavy with two big balls of ground bait loaded with hemp and castor and introduced one ball on my near side line just over the inside shelf. The inside line was good from the off with skimmers and small roach and perch coming regularly. Whilst catching these fish i kept the odd pouch of maggots going over the far bank line.
This really is a game of patience on the canal and judgement as the longer you leave that far bank line before fishing it the better the fishing will be but you don't want to leave it too long that the boat traffic starts not long after feeding it. I think the beauty of this far bank line is the face its settled with no disturbance and there is a bed of bait on the bottom for them to settle over.
With canal sessions i think you get the best results early morning so i get out of the mindset that i will be fishing all day, all my canal sessions are form first light till around 10 to 11am max, earlier if boat traffic is really really heavy. Early on the inside line fished well but as bank side disturbance grew i knew the fish had backed off and it was time to go over to the far bank.
The far bank line was instantly a bite a chuck and it was not a surprise with it being so close to the cover. Bites would come on the drop mainly but a better fish was always the result should the bait settle on the bottom, a caster session on this canal is well over due.
Keeping the bait going in saw fish coming regular to the net and at times some quality roach would nip in and these are of course the jewel in the crown for any canal angler. The session was the relaxing session i had craved in the week, a polar opposite form the beige wall i stared at all week long in work. A 12lb net was the end outcome of lovely silver fish.
As with all fishing we should leave the banks how we find them, foot prints, spilt bait and the depression from my basket the only sign the bank had been visited.
Doubles Doubles and the Hidden Jewel Of the Lake....
There was no escaping at this point that early morning quick sessions for carp where flowing through my veins. The sessions where both fun and whats even better, cheap, some sessions costing as little as 35p for a loaf of bread. The tackle costs where just as minimal with one packet of hooks still going strong with a few left from a pack of ten.
To this point i had been taking two rods with me with one on the bait alarm on the bottom and one on the top with bread, never fishing both at the same time, but alternating between the two. As the sessions went on it soon became noticeable that fishing a bait on the bottom was just too easy. I don't say that in a cocky way but once i had found a clear spot, near cover, i found the fish would come and come and come and it was getting a little silly. I had broke my personal best and i felt that i could possibly break this again with one big fish spotted but i was at the stage where i didn't want to plough through runs to catch one fish i wanted to go for a few hours and have some fun.
That said i started just going with one rod, a net, a bucket with my loaf of bread and unhooking mat in and my licence of course. Free lining bread on the surface was what i wanted to do and it was such fun. On this session the morning was very dark and there was plenty of cloud cover as i arrived and i doubted whether i would get the carp up on top at all. Had i bitten off more than i could chew in taking up this fun challenge.
A few free offerings put in the margins and some in open water i waited with bread in hand ready to make my first cast. Time would tell if the fish would come up on top. After what seemed an age....Slurp! and then another Slurp, it was like music to my ears. The fish was taking right close top a big snag but it was taking the bread down well so i knew if it saw my offering i would have him. Sure enough up he came and with such a gentle take the bread disappeared, line tightened and i was into my first carp, a nice small common to open my account.
This fish was fish 48 of the season for me and i was hoping for the morning to bring me over the 50 mark. The carp released i could see a carp taking some bread right on the edges of my baited area. Using braid certainly caught me this fish as this fish came and looked at the bread and moved on but being able to quickly lift and mend the line as it turned I'm sure the better presentation fooled it as it had a second look.
A 10lb 9oz Carp was the reward and what a reward a stunning double figure ghosite.
I had been drip feeding some bread under my feet for a while and the natural tow of the lake was taking the bread over to the far bank just off a overhanging tree. To this day i don't know how on earth a damp free lined piece of bread one, managed to stay on the hook after the cast and two managed to land inches off the over hanging tree on the far side.
Land it did with an ever so inviting plop and no sooner had it landed than a huge set of rubber lips rolled on the bread and nailed it. No strike was need as the rod was nearly pulled out of my hand in a run of pure power! The line cut across the surface as the fish bolted for open water and keeping deep i was luck it did. Had it headed for the big snag i would have been in all kinds of trouble.
The rod hooped over it was a fantastic fight that i enjoyed, i don't think i would have been so relaxed had it been my PB a few weeks earlier, now i had a few doubles under my belt i was enjoying the battles more and there where little nerves. Sliding the net under the fish i peered in and she was a nice common carp. On the mat peeling back the mesh revealed a stunning fish and i mean stunning she was fin perfect. Her mouth was clean and her scales immaculate, lifting her dorsal fin revealed, well i will let the pictures below do the talking.
14lb 8oz of pristine common carp, what a fish to bring up the 50!
The fish admired and returned safely back to the water i had a quick coffee break and while i did i fed under my feet again. All this bread going in i had acquired myself a little pet carp under my feet, i don't think she knew i knew she was there, but i did. She was there taking the odd piece of bread thinking she was getting one over on me and i hadn't seen her, unfortunately i had. It was time to cash her in.
Coffee drank i stopped feeding bread for a few minutes allowing her to mop up the bits as they went passed. The next one down was the one with my hook in and good as gold she came out of the bank side reed cover and took the bait. Now bear in mind i had seen this fish quite a bit taking bread but what i had not realised was she was quite a bit carp. In fact she was one of the better specimens in the lake and she made me know it with a bruising encounter all under the rod tip.
Sliding her into the net i felt like my arm was going to fall off, another common and my third double of the morning at 16lb 10oz.
Two smaller carp got in on the act after this fish and i had noticed when these whipper snappers move in its a sure sign the better fish have moved out. A quick change of swim i dropped back into a swim close to the car and just before leaving a managed a final double of the morning in a 10lb 6oz mirror carp.
I left around 9am having caught a few fish and certainly had my string pulled. Home in time for the family to be waking up and ready for a day ahead spent relaxing with the family. My mind occasionally drifting back to the lake that morning and that magical 14lb pristine carp, the hidden jewel of the lake.
Till next time
tight lines
danny
This weeks blog update see's me hitting the bank for my first ever session just aimed at catching barbel, we then jump into a pole session on the canal in a swim with plenty of features and we finish it off with a bumper session for carp where believe it or not i catch my 50th carp of the season (still shake my head as i type that as i can not believe i have actually caught some carp on this blog lol) in a session where it certainly was quality rather than quantity.
Sit back, grab a brew and a chocky biscuit, its what i do when i read blogs and lets get right into this update...
First Barbel Session.....
At the start of the week i had decided to get my act together with the barbel fishing and as with all aspects of fishing preparation is the key. I knew evenings would be the best time for a bite but i also knew that such a session was never going to happen after work as it stood right now as i had no hemp seed prepared and no meat hook baits prepared either.
There was always the option to go to the tackle shop and just buy loads of tins of hemp seed and pre prepared luncheon meat but come on have you seen the price of these products?? Yes they are convenient and i wont argue in the fact the missus wont kill you for using her best pan to cook your hemp or for turning the house air green with the smell of boiling hemp, but, when you do the sums you realise just how much money money is added to the price of the raw product of hemp seed when you buy it in this form. Maybe I'm just tight but doing the sums a 20kg bag saves you at least the price of a new fishing rod and on the odd occasion i have bought a tin of hemp i found these tins don't even contain a pint of hemp! Well in a blog with no introduction we snook a rant in somewhere ha-ha.
So with the hemp cooked in 2 pint bags and the luncheon meat happily marinating in my spicy mix it was a simple case of getting the bait out of the freezer before work so i could hit the bank right away that evening. A quick check on the EA levels at 4pm showed the river dropping and about foot max above summer levels, this was at 2pm on my break. I rushed home at 4pm grabbed the gear and then fought my way through rush hour traffic finally arriving on the river banks at around 5.15pm.
Opening the farmers gate i could see the river, odd i thought as you can not normally see her till a little more along the field. Getting closer i could see she was well up and very very coloured. I walked the banks to find most of the swims unfishable due to the bottom of the peg being submerged. The only bit of the stretch that was fishable was the peg i fished the opening week on the stick float where the risen bank i was stood on had created a slack on the inside. Down the middle it was bombing through with all types of stuff coming down.
I fed the inside heavy with hemp seed trying my best to judge the flow so the hemp was staying in the swim and nog getting washed away. I set my stall and in went a big pieces of smelly meat. Sat back well up the bank i was fishing my first ever barbel session on a rising river and although the text books say this is the best conditions, for me, it was a baptism of fire and i was using all my watercraft to try and read a river rising fast, i felt i was in the right spot. If i was going to get one it would be here.
Bot long after casting in i began to get a few taps on the rod tip, then a few more and the excitement levers rose, i was at least in a spot where fish where holding. The taps continued until the tip tap round and remained round, i stuck and there was a fish on!! in the flow it felt ok but soon up came a slimy slippery eel! Not the species i was after but the blank was saved and i felt i was in the right area.
The next few hours i really questioned my sanity as zero taps on the rod and the sight of whole trees coming down the river really did have me thinking of packing in and calling it a wasted trip. A stick in the water was my marker and the river had fully submerged this as was the rise. 9pm and the flow on the river seemed to change and settle and the streams of rubbish had stopped coming down. Being a stick float angler i rarely see the river in this state so i imagine this was when the river hit its peak and leveled off.
Thew light levels began to go and calm was all around me, it felt right it felt bite time and as soon as i thought that the tip wolloped round, a bite like nothing else i had ever seen, grabbing the rod i was bent into a fish that felt massive in the flow yet it went from one side to the next effortlessly before coming into the middle of the river and again making hard runs, i felt sure it was a barbel. It certainly was not a chub,too strong. Holding in the flow and the fight i felt getting into the middle stages the line come flying back at me as the hook pulled!! Writing this now the feeling i felt then comes flooding back, i was gutted, i sat there and in short was amazed how the fish had gone on such hard runs but when seemingly under control in the middle of the river the hook pulled. Fished on into dark but nothing came but the extra time saw me reflecting on the situation.
"my first ever barbel trip on a new river in flooded conditions and i had read the river, fed a swim and got a bite from a barbel. Yes i was gutted but there where more positives than negatives to take form this session."
Early Morning Canal Session - Bridgewater Canal
A stifling day midweek in work and i decided to escape the beige brick wall i face in work and escape for an opportunistic hour lunch break. A short drive and i was soon heading down a narrow road leading to a humpback bridge. A tight turn and i was literally along side the canal looking at a swim that was to die for reeds lined the far bank and all along the length there was sunken trees and surface lillys. It screamed fish but alas my destiny that day lay back at my desk dreaming of the swim i had just been eating my sandwiches in.
Saturday morning arrived and in the dark i loaded the car and made my way to the swim. I loaded in my MAP TKS 101 2G pole with two top kits and bait for the day would be ground bait and red maggot. As regular readers will know i follow a set routine with my canal sessions and the first thing to be done was mixing up the ground bait, this is my opinion, when prepared in the right way, is the key to success on the canal.
I fed the far line just off the cover heavy with two big balls of ground bait loaded with hemp and castor and introduced one ball on my near side line just over the inside shelf. The inside line was good from the off with skimmers and small roach and perch coming regularly. Whilst catching these fish i kept the odd pouch of maggots going over the far bank line.
This really is a game of patience on the canal and judgement as the longer you leave that far bank line before fishing it the better the fishing will be but you don't want to leave it too long that the boat traffic starts not long after feeding it. I think the beauty of this far bank line is the face its settled with no disturbance and there is a bed of bait on the bottom for them to settle over.
With canal sessions i think you get the best results early morning so i get out of the mindset that i will be fishing all day, all my canal sessions are form first light till around 10 to 11am max, earlier if boat traffic is really really heavy. Early on the inside line fished well but as bank side disturbance grew i knew the fish had backed off and it was time to go over to the far bank.
The far bank line was instantly a bite a chuck and it was not a surprise with it being so close to the cover. Bites would come on the drop mainly but a better fish was always the result should the bait settle on the bottom, a caster session on this canal is well over due.
Keeping the bait going in saw fish coming regular to the net and at times some quality roach would nip in and these are of course the jewel in the crown for any canal angler. The session was the relaxing session i had craved in the week, a polar opposite form the beige wall i stared at all week long in work. A 12lb net was the end outcome of lovely silver fish.
As with all fishing we should leave the banks how we find them, foot prints, spilt bait and the depression from my basket the only sign the bank had been visited.
Doubles Doubles and the Hidden Jewel Of the Lake....
There was no escaping at this point that early morning quick sessions for carp where flowing through my veins. The sessions where both fun and whats even better, cheap, some sessions costing as little as 35p for a loaf of bread. The tackle costs where just as minimal with one packet of hooks still going strong with a few left from a pack of ten.
To this point i had been taking two rods with me with one on the bait alarm on the bottom and one on the top with bread, never fishing both at the same time, but alternating between the two. As the sessions went on it soon became noticeable that fishing a bait on the bottom was just too easy. I don't say that in a cocky way but once i had found a clear spot, near cover, i found the fish would come and come and come and it was getting a little silly. I had broke my personal best and i felt that i could possibly break this again with one big fish spotted but i was at the stage where i didn't want to plough through runs to catch one fish i wanted to go for a few hours and have some fun.
That said i started just going with one rod, a net, a bucket with my loaf of bread and unhooking mat in and my licence of course. Free lining bread on the surface was what i wanted to do and it was such fun. On this session the morning was very dark and there was plenty of cloud cover as i arrived and i doubted whether i would get the carp up on top at all. Had i bitten off more than i could chew in taking up this fun challenge.
A few free offerings put in the margins and some in open water i waited with bread in hand ready to make my first cast. Time would tell if the fish would come up on top. After what seemed an age....Slurp! and then another Slurp, it was like music to my ears. The fish was taking right close top a big snag but it was taking the bread down well so i knew if it saw my offering i would have him. Sure enough up he came and with such a gentle take the bread disappeared, line tightened and i was into my first carp, a nice small common to open my account.
This fish was fish 48 of the season for me and i was hoping for the morning to bring me over the 50 mark. The carp released i could see a carp taking some bread right on the edges of my baited area. Using braid certainly caught me this fish as this fish came and looked at the bread and moved on but being able to quickly lift and mend the line as it turned I'm sure the better presentation fooled it as it had a second look.
A 10lb 9oz Carp was the reward and what a reward a stunning double figure ghosite.
I had been drip feeding some bread under my feet for a while and the natural tow of the lake was taking the bread over to the far bank just off a overhanging tree. To this day i don't know how on earth a damp free lined piece of bread one, managed to stay on the hook after the cast and two managed to land inches off the over hanging tree on the far side.
Land it did with an ever so inviting plop and no sooner had it landed than a huge set of rubber lips rolled on the bread and nailed it. No strike was need as the rod was nearly pulled out of my hand in a run of pure power! The line cut across the surface as the fish bolted for open water and keeping deep i was luck it did. Had it headed for the big snag i would have been in all kinds of trouble.
The rod hooped over it was a fantastic fight that i enjoyed, i don't think i would have been so relaxed had it been my PB a few weeks earlier, now i had a few doubles under my belt i was enjoying the battles more and there where little nerves. Sliding the net under the fish i peered in and she was a nice common carp. On the mat peeling back the mesh revealed a stunning fish and i mean stunning she was fin perfect. Her mouth was clean and her scales immaculate, lifting her dorsal fin revealed, well i will let the pictures below do the talking.
14lb 8oz of pristine common carp, what a fish to bring up the 50!
The fish admired and returned safely back to the water i had a quick coffee break and while i did i fed under my feet again. All this bread going in i had acquired myself a little pet carp under my feet, i don't think she knew i knew she was there, but i did. She was there taking the odd piece of bread thinking she was getting one over on me and i hadn't seen her, unfortunately i had. It was time to cash her in.
Coffee drank i stopped feeding bread for a few minutes allowing her to mop up the bits as they went passed. The next one down was the one with my hook in and good as gold she came out of the bank side reed cover and took the bait. Now bear in mind i had seen this fish quite a bit taking bread but what i had not realised was she was quite a bit carp. In fact she was one of the better specimens in the lake and she made me know it with a bruising encounter all under the rod tip.
Sliding her into the net i felt like my arm was going to fall off, another common and my third double of the morning at 16lb 10oz.
Two smaller carp got in on the act after this fish and i had noticed when these whipper snappers move in its a sure sign the better fish have moved out. A quick change of swim i dropped back into a swim close to the car and just before leaving a managed a final double of the morning in a 10lb 6oz mirror carp.
I left around 9am having caught a few fish and certainly had my string pulled. Home in time for the family to be waking up and ready for a day ahead spent relaxing with the family. My mind occasionally drifting back to the lake that morning and that magical 14lb pristine carp, the hidden jewel of the lake.
Till next time
tight lines
danny
Tuesday, 26 July 2016
Acolyte River Fun, Margin Carp Stalking and Canal Roach.....
A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet. It has been a mad week or so in work so finding time to blog has proven difficult to come by. Again plenty of content to catch up means i have no end of trips to choose from and rather than write an introduction around topics in the angling world that have taken my fancy i have gone with a different update this week, all out fishing trips.
So in this updates its fishing trips from start to end and i still do not think i am going to be anywhere near up to date. I guess with the car in for a job for the next two days and the idea i might not make it out this weekend if the job is not done then this is not such a bad situation to be in at all. All i will say before we get into this update is my fishing at the moment is some of the most exciting fishing i have done. Searching out new rivers, carp on the top, carp on the bottom, canal session and of course a cheeky few trips out for barbel. Its been a great adventure.
So on with the update, we start on the banks of a river in search of anything that swims, any fish would be a bonus on the new drennan acolyte rod. We follow this up with a one cast one fish carp session where stealth was the order of the day and we finish up with a trip to the canal on the pole.
A New Stretch A New Challenge....
We hit the banks as always at the crack of dawn hoping to find out normal haunt on the river at a nice level to fish. We was met with a river in spate and totally un fishable on the stick float. We had a back up option and this was to try a new stretch much further up the system where we hoped to find some clear water.
We arrived at the stretch and made the long walk to the bank expecting to find head high balsam and nettles. What we found was quite well walked in paths and some nicely positioned swims, a luxury for us considering the past few months making our own swims with shovels before fishing. Back to the car to collect the gear, again i traveled light with my octoplus box and minimal gear in my holdall, contained within the holdall was my new 14ft Drennan Acolyte Ultra rod and i could not wait to get out and give it a go.
The swim a gentle run with a sunken tree on the far bank it screamed fish and although it can be the wrong thing to do before you plumb up and run through i couldn't resist feeding the swim as i set up. Holding the new rod in my hand it lived up to its name it was so light! Adding the shimano reel just balanced it perfectly! The line threaded through the eyes it was clear that care was going to be needed with the ultra light tip section of this rod. Red maggot and hemp where the baits of choice and i was soon ready to make my first cast in earnest.
A small river but plumbed up i found around 6ft depth in front of me and on a hot day was glad of it. The first trot through brought a small chublet.
Trotting right down the middle of the river i soon found out that there was some streamer weed or a snag right on where i thought my hemp was settling. Always the way eh. A quick change of line and i found around the same depth at rod tip so i began feeding this line. It was a harder trot involving me to hold back to get over what i think was a rock in the swim but doing so saw me picking up small roach and chublets at a steady pace.
The swim then died completely and i knew it was either big fish or a predator had moved in. Till i see signs of predator activity i am always reluctant to try for the pike so i worked on the assumption it was a bigger fish in the area. I then bumped a better fish right on my hemp before then striking and making contact with a better fish the very next trot down.
The acolyte i have to be honest felt light weight in power during this battle but being so light it might have been down to the fact i didn't know at this stage just how much strain i could impart on the fish. A long tussle later a nice perch was in the net and surely this was the reason the "snack sized " roach had decided to vacate the area.
After the perch was caught i settled into a steady routine of trotting and feeding the swim and i caught steady but in spells if you get me? Long periods with no bite was followed by a good spell of steady bites fishing down the inside line.
The final net will not set any records but as first sessions go it provided something to build on and with my uncle hitting a nice bream on the feeder it provided plenty of food for thought.
Margin Carp Stalker...
A deluge of rain over a three day period saw me travelling to the lake not knowing that the level had rose a good few feet and the pegs where now under water. Luckily for me i had donned my usual wellingtons so i was well equipped for the situation. Access to many pegs was almost impossible so i set up on the banks of the first peg and contemplated whether or not to even set up.
Scanning the water for signs of fish i noticed movement right on the edge of the peg, carp being inquisitive they had obviously moved into the margins and onto the grassy areas looking for worms and insects caught out by the rise.
Feeding some corn and micro pellets close in i soon saw the water close in look agitated and what i call nervous water. It was clear a carp had moved ting under my rod tips onto the bait. A tail then come clean out of the water as a decent carp tipped up on the bait.
A method feeder loaded with micro pellets and corn on the hook all sprayed in Bubblecream Stinky stuff was carefully lowered onto the spot. Short steps into the flooded peg the operation of placing the bait on the spot with little disturbance was achieved and the rod placed on the rod rest it was a waiting game.
It took a while but eventually the rod hooped over as the carp bolted out of the swim heading straight for a margin Lilly bed! Straight onto the peg and into the water i went to apply side strain on this fish. All my battles with the better carp in here had been played out mostly in the middle of the lake with a bit of a scrap under the rod tip, this was far different, huge hard lunges for snags tested my gear to the max and it was pure power each time the fish went. I can remember early on in this fight my arm aching and we thinking i was in trouble on more than one occasion.
The fish eventually began to tire and taking a huge breath of air i knew the time was close for netting, Into the carp net she went and thank god for the flooded margin to me left as i left her in the net in the shallows while i got my breath back.
A nice carp of 13lb 8oz was on the mat and what a lovely prize she was...
She turned out to be my only fish of my 1 hour short session but i left grinning like the cheshire cat as i headed off to work for overtime.
MAP 101 2G Pole First trip on Bridgewater Canal...
The day previous i had been on the river using my new drennan acolyte but with a good pint of maggots left i just had to give the local canal a go early doors on the Sunday. A early rise i was soon on the short drive to my peg and for some time now i had my sights set on fishing this bit of canal but with only half a pole i felt it not worth while as i always like to fish a line well over out of the boat lane. With this new pole i could not do that and what a fantastic canal swim i had chose to christen the pole in.
A lot of reasons you hear fro people not fishing the canal is accessibility and where as this can be true on some canals on the bridgewater canal if you do your homework you can get close to the water and in this session i was closer than you would get on most commercials.
I only had a few hours and with only one match kit set up i decided to go all out right across the canal up near the boat. I fed some ground bait and a good bed of red maggot via my new cupping kit, what a revelation this is, but i admit i had made a cardinal sin. I fed right away without first fishing the swim for a bit and i could not for the life of me get the float to settle. I knew it was shotted to go down to the tip but it would settle on one put in and not the next and others i would go solid then pull off. After a hour or so of messing around i had put a few small roach in the keep net.
Not long after a guy come along, thank god he did, as he mentioned that it was good that they had been along and cut the weed back. Apparently the weed on the far bank had covered a third of the canal recently and it seemed a lot of it had been left under the water. All the float not settling made sense now but luckily it was not to late to re plumb up down the middle and feed the deeper line with ground bait and maggot. On the session i found feeding two large jaffa sized balls from the off then little nuggets here and there was the way to go, a clear canal i think the colour in the water really helped and as the swim grew so the better roach showed.
Feeding lightly with hemp seed seemed to get them going again when the bites died but i was really impressed with the average stamp of roach on the day and fantastic to see such silvers are there to be caught if only people would go out and fish for them. I continued to pick up roach steadily over the ground bait and it was great fun on the new pole.
The pole itself is certainly lighter than the old model and seems a lot stiffer, one thing that i thought would do my head in was the side puller elastic being visible on the side of the top kit in my eye line but i have to say i did not notice it and actually when the elastic was loose after a better fish it was simple to tighten it back up on the side pullet than looking for the internal puller kit on my old one. The pole i am sure will do me fine for my fishing and i cant wait to get some elastic in the power kits for some fun with the carp.
The final net was a 10.7lb net of silvers and a fantastic few hours on the local canal.
Packing up it was a joy to be joined by a lovely family of swans and their cygnets, fish and wildlife on the local cut...bliss.
till next time i wish you all
tight lines
Danny
So in this updates its fishing trips from start to end and i still do not think i am going to be anywhere near up to date. I guess with the car in for a job for the next two days and the idea i might not make it out this weekend if the job is not done then this is not such a bad situation to be in at all. All i will say before we get into this update is my fishing at the moment is some of the most exciting fishing i have done. Searching out new rivers, carp on the top, carp on the bottom, canal session and of course a cheeky few trips out for barbel. Its been a great adventure.
So on with the update, we start on the banks of a river in search of anything that swims, any fish would be a bonus on the new drennan acolyte rod. We follow this up with a one cast one fish carp session where stealth was the order of the day and we finish up with a trip to the canal on the pole.
A New Stretch A New Challenge....
We hit the banks as always at the crack of dawn hoping to find out normal haunt on the river at a nice level to fish. We was met with a river in spate and totally un fishable on the stick float. We had a back up option and this was to try a new stretch much further up the system where we hoped to find some clear water.
We arrived at the stretch and made the long walk to the bank expecting to find head high balsam and nettles. What we found was quite well walked in paths and some nicely positioned swims, a luxury for us considering the past few months making our own swims with shovels before fishing. Back to the car to collect the gear, again i traveled light with my octoplus box and minimal gear in my holdall, contained within the holdall was my new 14ft Drennan Acolyte Ultra rod and i could not wait to get out and give it a go.
The swim a gentle run with a sunken tree on the far bank it screamed fish and although it can be the wrong thing to do before you plumb up and run through i couldn't resist feeding the swim as i set up. Holding the new rod in my hand it lived up to its name it was so light! Adding the shimano reel just balanced it perfectly! The line threaded through the eyes it was clear that care was going to be needed with the ultra light tip section of this rod. Red maggot and hemp where the baits of choice and i was soon ready to make my first cast in earnest.
A small river but plumbed up i found around 6ft depth in front of me and on a hot day was glad of it. The first trot through brought a small chublet.
Trotting right down the middle of the river i soon found out that there was some streamer weed or a snag right on where i thought my hemp was settling. Always the way eh. A quick change of line and i found around the same depth at rod tip so i began feeding this line. It was a harder trot involving me to hold back to get over what i think was a rock in the swim but doing so saw me picking up small roach and chublets at a steady pace.
The swim then died completely and i knew it was either big fish or a predator had moved in. Till i see signs of predator activity i am always reluctant to try for the pike so i worked on the assumption it was a bigger fish in the area. I then bumped a better fish right on my hemp before then striking and making contact with a better fish the very next trot down.
The acolyte i have to be honest felt light weight in power during this battle but being so light it might have been down to the fact i didn't know at this stage just how much strain i could impart on the fish. A long tussle later a nice perch was in the net and surely this was the reason the "snack sized " roach had decided to vacate the area.
After the perch was caught i settled into a steady routine of trotting and feeding the swim and i caught steady but in spells if you get me? Long periods with no bite was followed by a good spell of steady bites fishing down the inside line.
The final net will not set any records but as first sessions go it provided something to build on and with my uncle hitting a nice bream on the feeder it provided plenty of food for thought.
Margin Carp Stalker...
A deluge of rain over a three day period saw me travelling to the lake not knowing that the level had rose a good few feet and the pegs where now under water. Luckily for me i had donned my usual wellingtons so i was well equipped for the situation. Access to many pegs was almost impossible so i set up on the banks of the first peg and contemplated whether or not to even set up.
Scanning the water for signs of fish i noticed movement right on the edge of the peg, carp being inquisitive they had obviously moved into the margins and onto the grassy areas looking for worms and insects caught out by the rise.
Feeding some corn and micro pellets close in i soon saw the water close in look agitated and what i call nervous water. It was clear a carp had moved ting under my rod tips onto the bait. A tail then come clean out of the water as a decent carp tipped up on the bait.
A method feeder loaded with micro pellets and corn on the hook all sprayed in Bubblecream Stinky stuff was carefully lowered onto the spot. Short steps into the flooded peg the operation of placing the bait on the spot with little disturbance was achieved and the rod placed on the rod rest it was a waiting game.
It took a while but eventually the rod hooped over as the carp bolted out of the swim heading straight for a margin Lilly bed! Straight onto the peg and into the water i went to apply side strain on this fish. All my battles with the better carp in here had been played out mostly in the middle of the lake with a bit of a scrap under the rod tip, this was far different, huge hard lunges for snags tested my gear to the max and it was pure power each time the fish went. I can remember early on in this fight my arm aching and we thinking i was in trouble on more than one occasion.
The fish eventually began to tire and taking a huge breath of air i knew the time was close for netting, Into the carp net she went and thank god for the flooded margin to me left as i left her in the net in the shallows while i got my breath back.
A nice carp of 13lb 8oz was on the mat and what a lovely prize she was...
She turned out to be my only fish of my 1 hour short session but i left grinning like the cheshire cat as i headed off to work for overtime.
MAP 101 2G Pole First trip on Bridgewater Canal...
The day previous i had been on the river using my new drennan acolyte but with a good pint of maggots left i just had to give the local canal a go early doors on the Sunday. A early rise i was soon on the short drive to my peg and for some time now i had my sights set on fishing this bit of canal but with only half a pole i felt it not worth while as i always like to fish a line well over out of the boat lane. With this new pole i could not do that and what a fantastic canal swim i had chose to christen the pole in.
A lot of reasons you hear fro people not fishing the canal is accessibility and where as this can be true on some canals on the bridgewater canal if you do your homework you can get close to the water and in this session i was closer than you would get on most commercials.
I only had a few hours and with only one match kit set up i decided to go all out right across the canal up near the boat. I fed some ground bait and a good bed of red maggot via my new cupping kit, what a revelation this is, but i admit i had made a cardinal sin. I fed right away without first fishing the swim for a bit and i could not for the life of me get the float to settle. I knew it was shotted to go down to the tip but it would settle on one put in and not the next and others i would go solid then pull off. After a hour or so of messing around i had put a few small roach in the keep net.
Not long after a guy come along, thank god he did, as he mentioned that it was good that they had been along and cut the weed back. Apparently the weed on the far bank had covered a third of the canal recently and it seemed a lot of it had been left under the water. All the float not settling made sense now but luckily it was not to late to re plumb up down the middle and feed the deeper line with ground bait and maggot. On the session i found feeding two large jaffa sized balls from the off then little nuggets here and there was the way to go, a clear canal i think the colour in the water really helped and as the swim grew so the better roach showed.
Feeding lightly with hemp seed seemed to get them going again when the bites died but i was really impressed with the average stamp of roach on the day and fantastic to see such silvers are there to be caught if only people would go out and fish for them. I continued to pick up roach steadily over the ground bait and it was great fun on the new pole.
The pole itself is certainly lighter than the old model and seems a lot stiffer, one thing that i thought would do my head in was the side puller elastic being visible on the side of the top kit in my eye line but i have to say i did not notice it and actually when the elastic was loose after a better fish it was simple to tighten it back up on the side pullet than looking for the internal puller kit on my old one. The pole i am sure will do me fine for my fishing and i cant wait to get some elastic in the power kits for some fun with the carp.
The final net was a 10.7lb net of silvers and a fantastic few hours on the local canal.
Packing up it was a joy to be joined by a lovely family of swans and their cygnets, fish and wildlife on the local cut...bliss.
till next time i wish you all
tight lines
Danny
Sunday, 19 June 2016
Smashing my Carp PB's and Mixing Canal Groundbait...
A warm welcome to this weeks blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet. Still loads of fishing to catch up on hence the 3 blogs in two weeks but i guess that is not a bad thing. This weeks blog sees a bit of talk on the new river season and a question i have been asked a lot this season around how i prepare my ground bait for canals, really simple this but a few parts of the process are vital. We finish up with some short sessions i have done recently for carp that saw the PB's roll in. I will go into detail next update on my set up and how i have been fishing for these carp.
On to the update:
Canal Groundbait Preparation
This is a subject i covered on the blog last year and i included a video in the update so if you are looking for a bit of a video of what i am about to write then its on the following link.
link: http://satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/baits-for-canal-fishing-and-tench-on.html
So you get on the bank and you are ready to attack the canal in front of you, before you do anything else groundbait should be running through your mind, it is the first thing i do when i arrive on the bank is knock up the ground bait. The mix needs time to soak up the water and settle before you can make a decision if it needs more water or not. Ideally you mix it up and by the time you have set up all your gear and rigs you should be there or there about sto go back to it.
Canal fishing it is important to remember we are dealing here with a branch of angling that is so delicate and all parts of our approach need to be really refined, lines, baits and of course our ground bait needs that extra bit of care and attention when fishing a canal.
Opening the bag of ground bait you could be forgiven for thinking its all just a bag of finely breadcrumbs and additives but you would be wrong. A quick run through the riddle of the dry mix reveals there is more in the bag than meets the eye. The one i use has quite a bit of dry hemp in it but i have in the passed riddled other roach and bream mixes that have contained a huge amount ogf particles like hemp and maize flakes, for canal fishing i remove these as its just extra feed that will soon fill up the fish. Remember we are here to catch fish not feed them.
All the below came out of half a bag of groundbait riddled straight form the bag
This extra feed removed you are left with just the crumb mix. I add water slowly in a round bucket and spend a good few minutes really working the mix to get it as mixed in as possible and when i can form a ball in my hand with just a soft squeeze and then it breaks up completely to nothing when i rub it between my hands i know i am there. This mix is then left till after i set up all my gear and i have plumber my lines.
Going back to the mix you will normally find it has soaked in most of the water and is drier than when you left it. Add more water here will you get it to how it was before you left it. Maximizing how much water your ground bait can take will see you left with a neater mix. Once you are happy with it, unfortunately this stage does only come with time and practice as you can feel the mix is right, if you get me.
I then pass the whole mix through my riddle shaking at first to get the small bits through you are left with just the wet balls of ground bait. These left in the mix will fill the fish up and we need to break theses down. Gently rub these lumps though the riddle. What you are left with now is a fine fully mixed in base mix ground bait and you can now control what you do with it and more importantly how much feed you want to include in the mix. The most important part is you are now in control and have a mix with high attraction but little feed content to work with, an excellent starting point to build a swim with.
The "Glorious" 16th Arrived...
The actual fishing part of the blog is still a few trips behind but i feel its important to keep the main body of the blog up to date with current events. Sat here now the night before the river season is due to open and all i can hear is the patter of rain against the window and the angry rumble of thunder i the distance. All in all a very drab way to start the season and three months ago little did i imagine i would have to be checking the same flood tables come june 16th.
To put this in perspective in terms of my fishing being a angler who float fishes the river, a river only has to be slightly in flood for the river to be unfishable for me. There are of course hundred of barbel and chub anglers out there jumping with joy at the sight of this extra rain, rightly so too, i would if it where me.
The fishing this year ironically enough should see me targeting barbel but there is no way i'm going straight onto the banks of a flooded river i have only ever been once to try for a barbel. This season is going to see us taking strides into the unknown with two rivers that could not be further apart in appearance and size in the Dane and Weaver.
Not to spoil an future blog too much but the opening day actually saw me carp fishing and although not where i wanted to be ideally i caught a few carp with one being a pristine 14lb common below. This eased the pain of not making it onto the banks of the river i can tell you that.
on to this weeks fishing:
Smashing Those Carp PB's
So with overtime schedule well and truly in place it was again short evening sessions from around 5pm till dusk that where proving to be the norm for me and my fishing. Leaving work at 4pm it was a nice relaxed gathering of the gear and drive to the lake knowing the better fishing didn't really come on till the surrounding trees hid the sun from sight. Again travelling as light as possible it was a rod rest, rod, net and some tackle placed in a bucket that i would be taking.
Bait wise it was again the trust wet micro pellets round a method feeder and sweetcorn on the hood. Each cast the method was sprayed with some Stinky Stuff Crayfish spray.
Most people i saw in the evening fishing the lake popped into the first swims by the car and why not it was close to the car and quick to get off the lake but i found this swim to be better early in the morning as the sun was first to hit here. Based on that thinking but flipping it i guessed the fishing would be better in the evening right down the other side of the lake as this would be the last place the sun would hit. The down side to this was the fact the pegs where really overgrown and muddy under your feet and the added cover and foliage certainly meant added attention from the mozzy's.
In all angling we have to have a theory to work toward, a way of thinking the scenario through, before we hit the bank. I guess the more you think over your fishing and the more time and effort you put into you session before you hit the bank then the more successful you will be. In all fishing you can just turn up and cast any bait anywhere in the lake and catch the biggest fish in the lake but to be successful over time i feel you need to work a little more at it. Luck is always needed but you can do your best to increase your odds by formulating a plan.
On this session i had one rod, fishing towards a snag its all i dared, it was placed just down in the margin to my left besides a overhanging bush. Dark and mysterious water beneath and being un-fishable beyond its leaves it look the perfect place to find carp. Having seen some nice carp caught by my mate Ste i knew there where better fish to be had in the pool and my mentality was now in trying to find a method that would see me picking up these better carp.
The rod placed on the bite alarm it did not take long for the tell tale taps on the tip to start, over time i have learnt to read the taps and work out if bream where at the feeder or carp, but at the time of this session i was dipping and diving for the rod with every line bite and aggressive move of the feeder by feeding fish. The rod of course then wrapped round and it was hands on the reel to stop the fish in its tracks before it reached the safety of the roots. Out in open water the fish was a different prospect and was soon in the net waiting to be unhooked, a nice single figure mirror.
The fish returned and the hot sun beating down i could see the odd car moving around in the upper layers and i knew it would be a waiting game for them to settle down and go on the feed. I also knew there was the odd fish holding in the back of the snag i was fishing as tell tale swirls of them moving gave away their presence. They where deep in though and i knew would need tempting with regular casting to build up a bed of smelly bait in the area.
A few casts and signs of a fish on the bait started and this one must have been on the feed hard as it did not take long for the the violent taps to result in a run. A hard fighting common was my reward.
The swim after this went through a big lull and with the sun beating down hard and the mozzys biting even harder i did consider calling it a day. Its a tough one as you know if you wait it out the fish will come but it comes down to the decision if you can be bothered waiting for it.
The lull in activity was passed a by a bit easier by some nice sized bream moving into the swim. They where great to see and i guess any fish is better than no fish on the bank. They showed me the need to keep casting regular as there was plenty of mouths to feed.
Although the bream where a good addition to the action i also knew they where a sure sign that the carp where not on the feed or in the area. These bream would soon be pushed out by a group of carp coming in. A hour or so passed and the started to finally sulk behind the tree line. As the last of its light lit my nearside margin i saw a large group of carp sulk into the baited area, where my theories correct? where these fish moving to the now warmer end of the lake?.
The excitement levels grew and having just recast i knew this shoal would be met with a nice bed of pellet. Signs of feeding fish where soon showing as big bubbles rose from the swim and then there was two beeps on the bite alarm and a slow bend in the rod. Grabbing the rod there was solid weight at the other end and thankfully the fish moved slowly out into the lake by itself. The fights itself was more of a battle of attrition than any long runs for freedom as the carp shook its head from side to side. It woke up under the rod tip briefly but as fights went it was quite poor and it was only as i slid the carp over the net i saw it was a decent fish. Ont the scales i was rewarded with a new PB of 13lb 2oz,
By the time i had taken the pics and slid here back it felt right to call it a day on the session, i left buzzing and the woes of work where left by the waterside, i love fishing. Video is of the carp going back in the warm evening glow.
Second Special Session in a week....
So with the last PB still seeing me floating on air i returned to the lake later that week to find the banks a bit busier and the swim i was sat in the previous week fully occupied. I decided to set up on the other bank and there was only one spot to put the bait and that was right on the edge of the sunken tree. This side of the bank allowed you to fish close to the snag as you have the angle to apply pressure on the fish to get it away from the snag.
To do this type of fishing you do need to have the backbone in the rod and the right strength line. I had loaded these reels with 15lb maxima from my previous car fishing and knowing how snaggy this swim is i upped the hook line from a 7lb to a 10lb hook link, boy was a glad i made that decision!
Some would say this i far too heavy for just carp fishing and they might be right but its what i had to work with and in my opinion its better to know you have the strength to get fish out rather than be losing fish and leaving them with tackle in their mouths. In passed sessions i had become accustomed to the set up and i could tell from how long the feeder took to hit bottom just how deep it was. Dropping the bait about 2 foot from the snag i was pleased to find it quite shallow, great news i thought.
The rod in place the drag set quite tight and i positioned myself just next to the rod so i was straight on it. The action was really really really slow and it seemed to take an age before i got a bite but eventually three taps on the rod and again two beeps on the tip saw me lifting into a fish.
This fight was epic it was hit and hold at the start which saw me dunking the rod below the water and holding the clutch to not give the fish an inch of line. The rod bent round and a huge boil coming up just of the tree i knew i had stopped the fish but i just needed it to turn. Thankfully she did and she zoomed out into the lake making one heart stopping long run to the middle she was one powerful fish!
The run stopped i noticed a little lad who was fishing with his day on the next peg appear to my left. I had my heart in my mouth every time the fish came up to the top as i knew it was a nice fish but every time it came up and shot off on another run this little lad would jump in the air living every second of the fight! It was funny to watch and added to the fight. It was some fight as even when i got her up in the water she had some power and time and time again made hard lunges for the snags.
Eventually and with my arm feeling like it was about to fall off the fish showed signs of giving in and thankfully went into the net first time, she was a huge common and i knew it was a pb for sure, easily the biggest carp i had seen on the bank. The fish rested in the landing net i sat back and got my own breath back!
I knew my mate was on his way down for a natter so i left her to sulk in the carp net for a few minutes while i recovered! Time to weigh the fish and i nipped along the bank to see if the little lad wanted to come and have a look at the fish. I knew struggling lift the net form water it was heave and onto the scales i was over the moon to see them settle on 18lb10oz, now that is a carp PB i thought!!
Speaking to the young lad while waiting for ste it was great to hear he had just started fishing with his dad and his biggest fish to date was a roach. It was great listening to his stories about fishing and to see his reaction to the carp which just added to the experience but i think most of all about this evening i will remember him jumping up and down out of the corner of my eye.
A quick chat with ste and he took some great pictures for me of this special fish, cheers mate.
A good chew of the fat with Ste about our plans for the upcoming river season and he was off on his way. After he left i fished on for a hour or two and picked up two more fish.
The night for me will be remembered for that special fish. A upper double i knew just had to come sooner or later but as in most fishing it comes when you least expect it. Two new personal bests in a week and i was absolutely buzzing!
Till next time
tight lines
Danny
On to the update:
Canal Groundbait Preparation
This is a subject i covered on the blog last year and i included a video in the update so if you are looking for a bit of a video of what i am about to write then its on the following link.
link: http://satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/baits-for-canal-fishing-and-tench-on.html
So you get on the bank and you are ready to attack the canal in front of you, before you do anything else groundbait should be running through your mind, it is the first thing i do when i arrive on the bank is knock up the ground bait. The mix needs time to soak up the water and settle before you can make a decision if it needs more water or not. Ideally you mix it up and by the time you have set up all your gear and rigs you should be there or there about sto go back to it.
Canal fishing it is important to remember we are dealing here with a branch of angling that is so delicate and all parts of our approach need to be really refined, lines, baits and of course our ground bait needs that extra bit of care and attention when fishing a canal.
Opening the bag of ground bait you could be forgiven for thinking its all just a bag of finely breadcrumbs and additives but you would be wrong. A quick run through the riddle of the dry mix reveals there is more in the bag than meets the eye. The one i use has quite a bit of dry hemp in it but i have in the passed riddled other roach and bream mixes that have contained a huge amount ogf particles like hemp and maize flakes, for canal fishing i remove these as its just extra feed that will soon fill up the fish. Remember we are here to catch fish not feed them.
All the below came out of half a bag of groundbait riddled straight form the bag
This extra feed removed you are left with just the crumb mix. I add water slowly in a round bucket and spend a good few minutes really working the mix to get it as mixed in as possible and when i can form a ball in my hand with just a soft squeeze and then it breaks up completely to nothing when i rub it between my hands i know i am there. This mix is then left till after i set up all my gear and i have plumber my lines.
Going back to the mix you will normally find it has soaked in most of the water and is drier than when you left it. Add more water here will you get it to how it was before you left it. Maximizing how much water your ground bait can take will see you left with a neater mix. Once you are happy with it, unfortunately this stage does only come with time and practice as you can feel the mix is right, if you get me.
I then pass the whole mix through my riddle shaking at first to get the small bits through you are left with just the wet balls of ground bait. These left in the mix will fill the fish up and we need to break theses down. Gently rub these lumps though the riddle. What you are left with now is a fine fully mixed in base mix ground bait and you can now control what you do with it and more importantly how much feed you want to include in the mix. The most important part is you are now in control and have a mix with high attraction but little feed content to work with, an excellent starting point to build a swim with.
The "Glorious" 16th Arrived...
The actual fishing part of the blog is still a few trips behind but i feel its important to keep the main body of the blog up to date with current events. Sat here now the night before the river season is due to open and all i can hear is the patter of rain against the window and the angry rumble of thunder i the distance. All in all a very drab way to start the season and three months ago little did i imagine i would have to be checking the same flood tables come june 16th.
To put this in perspective in terms of my fishing being a angler who float fishes the river, a river only has to be slightly in flood for the river to be unfishable for me. There are of course hundred of barbel and chub anglers out there jumping with joy at the sight of this extra rain, rightly so too, i would if it where me.
The fishing this year ironically enough should see me targeting barbel but there is no way i'm going straight onto the banks of a flooded river i have only ever been once to try for a barbel. This season is going to see us taking strides into the unknown with two rivers that could not be further apart in appearance and size in the Dane and Weaver.
Not to spoil an future blog too much but the opening day actually saw me carp fishing and although not where i wanted to be ideally i caught a few carp with one being a pristine 14lb common below. This eased the pain of not making it onto the banks of the river i can tell you that.
on to this weeks fishing:
Smashing Those Carp PB's
So with overtime schedule well and truly in place it was again short evening sessions from around 5pm till dusk that where proving to be the norm for me and my fishing. Leaving work at 4pm it was a nice relaxed gathering of the gear and drive to the lake knowing the better fishing didn't really come on till the surrounding trees hid the sun from sight. Again travelling as light as possible it was a rod rest, rod, net and some tackle placed in a bucket that i would be taking.
Bait wise it was again the trust wet micro pellets round a method feeder and sweetcorn on the hood. Each cast the method was sprayed with some Stinky Stuff Crayfish spray.
Most people i saw in the evening fishing the lake popped into the first swims by the car and why not it was close to the car and quick to get off the lake but i found this swim to be better early in the morning as the sun was first to hit here. Based on that thinking but flipping it i guessed the fishing would be better in the evening right down the other side of the lake as this would be the last place the sun would hit. The down side to this was the fact the pegs where really overgrown and muddy under your feet and the added cover and foliage certainly meant added attention from the mozzy's.
In all angling we have to have a theory to work toward, a way of thinking the scenario through, before we hit the bank. I guess the more you think over your fishing and the more time and effort you put into you session before you hit the bank then the more successful you will be. In all fishing you can just turn up and cast any bait anywhere in the lake and catch the biggest fish in the lake but to be successful over time i feel you need to work a little more at it. Luck is always needed but you can do your best to increase your odds by formulating a plan.
On this session i had one rod, fishing towards a snag its all i dared, it was placed just down in the margin to my left besides a overhanging bush. Dark and mysterious water beneath and being un-fishable beyond its leaves it look the perfect place to find carp. Having seen some nice carp caught by my mate Ste i knew there where better fish to be had in the pool and my mentality was now in trying to find a method that would see me picking up these better carp.
The rod placed on the bite alarm it did not take long for the tell tale taps on the tip to start, over time i have learnt to read the taps and work out if bream where at the feeder or carp, but at the time of this session i was dipping and diving for the rod with every line bite and aggressive move of the feeder by feeding fish. The rod of course then wrapped round and it was hands on the reel to stop the fish in its tracks before it reached the safety of the roots. Out in open water the fish was a different prospect and was soon in the net waiting to be unhooked, a nice single figure mirror.
The fish returned and the hot sun beating down i could see the odd car moving around in the upper layers and i knew it would be a waiting game for them to settle down and go on the feed. I also knew there was the odd fish holding in the back of the snag i was fishing as tell tale swirls of them moving gave away their presence. They where deep in though and i knew would need tempting with regular casting to build up a bed of smelly bait in the area.
A few casts and signs of a fish on the bait started and this one must have been on the feed hard as it did not take long for the the violent taps to result in a run. A hard fighting common was my reward.
The swim after this went through a big lull and with the sun beating down hard and the mozzys biting even harder i did consider calling it a day. Its a tough one as you know if you wait it out the fish will come but it comes down to the decision if you can be bothered waiting for it.
The lull in activity was passed a by a bit easier by some nice sized bream moving into the swim. They where great to see and i guess any fish is better than no fish on the bank. They showed me the need to keep casting regular as there was plenty of mouths to feed.
Although the bream where a good addition to the action i also knew they where a sure sign that the carp where not on the feed or in the area. These bream would soon be pushed out by a group of carp coming in. A hour or so passed and the started to finally sulk behind the tree line. As the last of its light lit my nearside margin i saw a large group of carp sulk into the baited area, where my theories correct? where these fish moving to the now warmer end of the lake?.
The excitement levels grew and having just recast i knew this shoal would be met with a nice bed of pellet. Signs of feeding fish where soon showing as big bubbles rose from the swim and then there was two beeps on the bite alarm and a slow bend in the rod. Grabbing the rod there was solid weight at the other end and thankfully the fish moved slowly out into the lake by itself. The fights itself was more of a battle of attrition than any long runs for freedom as the carp shook its head from side to side. It woke up under the rod tip briefly but as fights went it was quite poor and it was only as i slid the carp over the net i saw it was a decent fish. Ont the scales i was rewarded with a new PB of 13lb 2oz,
By the time i had taken the pics and slid here back it felt right to call it a day on the session, i left buzzing and the woes of work where left by the waterside, i love fishing. Video is of the carp going back in the warm evening glow.
Second Special Session in a week....
So with the last PB still seeing me floating on air i returned to the lake later that week to find the banks a bit busier and the swim i was sat in the previous week fully occupied. I decided to set up on the other bank and there was only one spot to put the bait and that was right on the edge of the sunken tree. This side of the bank allowed you to fish close to the snag as you have the angle to apply pressure on the fish to get it away from the snag.
To do this type of fishing you do need to have the backbone in the rod and the right strength line. I had loaded these reels with 15lb maxima from my previous car fishing and knowing how snaggy this swim is i upped the hook line from a 7lb to a 10lb hook link, boy was a glad i made that decision!
Some would say this i far too heavy for just carp fishing and they might be right but its what i had to work with and in my opinion its better to know you have the strength to get fish out rather than be losing fish and leaving them with tackle in their mouths. In passed sessions i had become accustomed to the set up and i could tell from how long the feeder took to hit bottom just how deep it was. Dropping the bait about 2 foot from the snag i was pleased to find it quite shallow, great news i thought.
The rod in place the drag set quite tight and i positioned myself just next to the rod so i was straight on it. The action was really really really slow and it seemed to take an age before i got a bite but eventually three taps on the rod and again two beeps on the tip saw me lifting into a fish.
This fight was epic it was hit and hold at the start which saw me dunking the rod below the water and holding the clutch to not give the fish an inch of line. The rod bent round and a huge boil coming up just of the tree i knew i had stopped the fish but i just needed it to turn. Thankfully she did and she zoomed out into the lake making one heart stopping long run to the middle she was one powerful fish!
The run stopped i noticed a little lad who was fishing with his day on the next peg appear to my left. I had my heart in my mouth every time the fish came up to the top as i knew it was a nice fish but every time it came up and shot off on another run this little lad would jump in the air living every second of the fight! It was funny to watch and added to the fight. It was some fight as even when i got her up in the water she had some power and time and time again made hard lunges for the snags.
Eventually and with my arm feeling like it was about to fall off the fish showed signs of giving in and thankfully went into the net first time, she was a huge common and i knew it was a pb for sure, easily the biggest carp i had seen on the bank. The fish rested in the landing net i sat back and got my own breath back!
I knew my mate was on his way down for a natter so i left her to sulk in the carp net for a few minutes while i recovered! Time to weigh the fish and i nipped along the bank to see if the little lad wanted to come and have a look at the fish. I knew struggling lift the net form water it was heave and onto the scales i was over the moon to see them settle on 18lb10oz, now that is a carp PB i thought!!
Speaking to the young lad while waiting for ste it was great to hear he had just started fishing with his dad and his biggest fish to date was a roach. It was great listening to his stories about fishing and to see his reaction to the carp which just added to the experience but i think most of all about this evening i will remember him jumping up and down out of the corner of my eye.
A quick chat with ste and he took some great pictures for me of this special fish, cheers mate.
A good chew of the fat with Ste about our plans for the upcoming river season and he was off on his way. After he left i fished on for a hour or two and picked up two more fish.
The night for me will be remembered for that special fish. A upper double i knew just had to come sooner or later but as in most fishing it comes when you least expect it. Two new personal bests in a week and i was absolutely buzzing!
Till next time
tight lines
Danny
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